Brake for marine vessels.



W. H. HARRISS.

BRAKE FOR MARINE VESSELS.

APPLlCATlON FILED MAR. 3. 19's.

Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

WADE H. HARRISS, F HOUSTON, TEXAS.

BRAKE FOR MARINE VESSELS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 29, 1916;

Application filed March 3, 1916. Serial No. 81,947.

' siding at Houston, in the county of Harris and State of Texas, have invented new and useful Improvements in Brakes for Marine Vessels, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to brakes for marine vessels, the broad object in View being to provide in connection with the hull of a marine vessel, one or more shiftable brakes located on each side thereof together with operating means whereby one or more of the brakes may be moved outwardly to braking position or moved inwardly to a position where the body of the brake is substantially flush with the outer surface of the hull of the vessel.

The particular object of the present inventhe invention consists in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts, as herein described, illustrated and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings :-Figure 1 is a side elevation of a sufficient portion of a marine vessel to illustrate the application of the brake of this invention thereto. Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary side elevation partly in section illustrating the manner of mounting one of the brakes in its applied relation to the hull of a vessel. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary horizontal section showing one of the brakes and one of the mounting hangers therefor. Fig. 1 is a similar view showing the brake moved outwardly to its operative position, together with the brake operating means. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the hanger.

As the invention contemplates the use of any desired number of brakes on either side v of the hull of the vessel, according to the size of the vessel and other conditions, a description of one of said brakes will answer for the remainder. Each brake consists of a body 1 shown as of parallelogrammatic formation and resembling an ordinary door, said brake being normally housed'in a recess 2 closed by a back or inner wall 3 which excludes water from the hull of the vessel. The outer surface of the brake 1 is normally flush with the outer face of the hull of the vessel indicated at 4.

The brake is pivotally mounted and arranged to swing outwardly and inwardly between upper and lower hangers 5 and 6, respectively, one of said hangers being illustrated in plan view in Fig. 3 where it is shown enlarged at 7 to provide a bearing opening 8 for the adjacent reduced end 9 of a rock shaft 10 forming the hinge pin of the brake. The opening 8 is preferably in the form of a socket extending only part way through the hanger 6 as indicated at the bottom of Fig. 2. The corresponding opening 11 in the top hanger extends entirely'through the latter and the shaft 10 is extended above the top hanger 5 where it has fast thereon a crank arm 12.

To the crank arm 12 is attached the connecting rod 13 of a steam cylinder 14 under the control of the pilot or engineer who may thereby cause the crank arm 12 to move in the desired direction for either swinging the brake 1 to its resisting or braking position, or in the opposite direction for housing the same in its recess 2.

Under the preferred embodiment of the invention, the lower hanger 6 is set farther forward than the upper hanger 5 which gives an inclination to the rock shaft 10. Under such an arrangement, when the brake 1 swings outwardly, the free edge thereof moves to a certain extent downwardly into denser water and, furthermore, the inclination of the brake, and the forward offsetting of the bottom edge thereof with respect to a vertical line, produces a greater suction'or tends to draw the denser water upwardly and in that way obtains a greater braking effect and causes a correspondingly earlier checking of the progress of the vessel.

It will, of course, be understood that the number of brakes on each side of the vessel may be increased or diminished in accordancewith requirements such as the size, draft and tonnage of the vessel and furthermore by manipulating the brakes, the course of the vessel may be changed at will, a particularly valuable feature in case of breakage or injury to the rudder.

cylinder and piston, and a connecting rod actuated by said piston and connected to said crank arm, said rock shaft being inclined With the lower end thereof located in advance of a vertical line passing through the upper extremity thereof.

In testimony whereof I my signature in presence of two witnesses.

lVADE H. HARRISS. Witnesses:

J. H. HARRISS, \V. P. NEBLE'IT. 

